Free Republic

WOODLAND HILLS, Calif - Initially denied the right by school officials to share a Christmas song with his classmates during “show and tell,” a first-grade student has been permitted to participate after an Alliance Defense Fund attorney sent a letter on his behalf to Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Jean Brown.   “The First Amendment guarantees that the free speech rights of all students, including those who are Christian, are entitled to protection.  Those rights do not end at the schoolhouse gate,” said ADF Litigation Counsel Heather Gebelin Hacker.  “Any person familiar with the Constitution would recognize that this student’s...

The Grinch is alive and well in Hopewell Township -- at least according to some parents. Bear Tavern Elementary School parents are angry over an e-mail from Principal Bruce Arcurio giving new holiday guidelines that eliminate all religious celebrations from his Mercer County school.  "It was hard to read from the get-go," said township Committeewoman Judy Neiderer, who has a 10-year-old daughter at Bear Tavern. "This is something that stirs so much emotion in people." Arcurio's guidelines, as written in his e-mail, are: · "All December parties need to be winter celebrations and not celebrations of holidays." · "All holiday...

 It's time to wish the ACLU a Merry Christmas! No, not "Happy Holidays" or "Seasons   Greetings" or even "Kabala Kwanzaa." And certainly not "Xmas." We're talking actual "Merry Christmas" here. You can now send several E-cards a day to the ACLU as well as send your actual physical Christmas card to their national offices.  Send them some e-Cards. And don't forget to send an actual Christmas card to: ACLU125 Broad Street18th FloorNew York, NY 10004  Planned Parenthood has infuriated Christians all over the nation by selling "holiday cards" (they're not Christmas cards, of course) with their offensive and blasphemous slogan...

Charity is the first principle of the Knights of Columbus and, throughout its 125 year history, the Order has worked to help those who are suffering and in need.  Last year, Knights of Columbus donated more than 64 million hours of volunteer time and $139 million to charity. This year, the Order is airing a Christmas TV spot (Broadband or Dial-up ) on networks in the U.S. and Canada, encouraging viewers to join with the Knights in helping children in need. You may already have a favorite charity, or you may wish to consider one or more of the charities supported...

Best Buy Co. turned in disappointing third-quarter results on Tuesday as the battle to sell flat-panel TVs, MP3s and other hot electronic gadgets has slashed prices and cut into profit. the nation's largest home-electronics retailer said the "very competitive climate" -- plasma and LCD TV prices dropped 25% to 30% -- held its profit to $150 million, or 31 cents a share, up nearly 8% from last year's income of $138 million, or 28 cents a share, but short of Wall Street's expectations. That sent shares lower by 5% to $51.30. The total results were mixed compared with Wall Street's...

City Reverses Position on Showing of Religious Movie Trailer at Annual Christmas Market  Contact: Thomas Brejcha, Esq., Thomas More Society, Pro-Life Law Center, 312-782-1680, 312-590-3408  CHICAGO, Dec. 20 /Christian Newswire/ -- As the holiday season of Christmas looms every nearer, Catholics and other Christians welcomed the City of Chicago's stunning reversal of its earlier denial to air film clips of the movie "The Nativity Story" at the Daley Plaza in downtown Chicago.   Earlier, Jim Law, Chicago's Executive Director of Special Events had denied New Line Cinema permission to show a trailer for the movie The Nativity Story at a Christmas festival...

IT JUST DOESN'T seem like Christmas this year — because there have been so few stories in the media about how the holiday is under siege by secular progressives. Some irony-deficient Chicago officials refused to allow advertising for "The Nativity Story" at the city's annual Christkindlmarket, an open-air re-creation of a European village. And Seattle-Tacoma International Airport's staff removed — then replaced — more than a dozen Christmas trees after a rabbi threatened to sue if a menorah wasn't included in the display. But, by and large, it's been a quiet season. The Christmas wars were inescapable in 2005. ....

It is becoming readily apparent that there is a real war escalating against both Christmas and Christianity in our beloved country. The battle lines are determined by being a "friend or foe" of this favorite American holyday. It seems retailers need to learn a lesson. Last year Loewe's began the festive season by selling "holiday trees," but under consumer pressure quickly returned to calling them "Christmas trees." Wal-Mart began the season by telling its employees they could not say "Merry Christmas" to shoppers. Both legal pressure and public displeasure caused them to back down from this policy. When executives from...

'Not a pretty sight' A Virgin Mary statue was found hanging at Stewartstown Presbyterian Church. By BRENT BURKEY Daily Record/Sunday News Article Launched: 12/19/2006 06:04:14 AM rd/Sunday News Article Launched: 12/19/2006 06:04:14 AM EST Dec 19, 2006 — Lori Adams went to work early Monday morning and didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. But someone else did and told the church secretary that a Virgin Mary lawn ornament was hanging by the neck in the parking lot of Stewartstown Presbyterian Church. "It was not a pretty sight when I came into work this morning," said Adams, who added that...

A 31-year-old man is in critical condition after setting himself ablaze in an apparent protest over a school district's decision to call winter and spring break, Christmas and Easter break. The protester, reportedly draped in a flag, ignited a decorated Christmas tree, an American flag and a revolutionary flag replica that read "Don't Tread on Me" before pouring a can of fuel on himself in front of the Kern County Court Building in Bakersfield, Calif., yesterday afternoon. The man, whose name was not released, survived, thanks to the quick action of a sheriff's deputy and several court employees. (Story continues...

Orlando, FL - With less than two weeks until Christmas, Liberty Counsel is still being inundated with calls from all across the nation relating to the annual Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign. Below are just a few of many examples: Arkansas - McNair Middle School in Fayetteville removed a teacher’s Nativity scene and Star of David from a larger display that also included secular holiday decorations. School officials were concerned about the religious aspects of the display. After Terry Rhodes called Liberty Counsel for help, he was given a legal memorandum showing that the display was constitutional. Mr. Rhodes gave...

Governor Chris Gregoire lit a Menorah in a celebration at the state Capitol on Monday, and at the same celebration, accepted the gift of a Menorah for her home. The Menorah that was lit during the ceremony is displayed in the Capitol rotunda with a Christmas tree. However, when a local resident asked for a Nativity scene to be displayed with the Menorah and the tree, the Governor refused. This morning, at the request of a local resident, Liberty Counsel faxed a letter to Governor Gregoire along with our Legal Memorandum on the constitutionality of displaying religious symbols during the...

A Hawaii county erected a Christmas tree to protect a Chanukah menorah from a church-state separation challenge. The American Civil Liberties Union complained to Maui County this week after seeing the menorah, accompanied by a dreidel, in front of the county building. A local rabbi had asked authorities for permission to set up the menorah. The ACLU cited laws that say that displaying a religious symbol by itself could constitute endorsement of that religion. County workers scrambled Wednesday to find a Christmas tree, in short supply in Hawaii this late in the season. One was found at a local botanical...

In recent weeks there has been much commentary about the “War on Christmas.” FOX News host Bill O’Reilly recently spoke up on November 18 saying, “It’s all part of the secular progressive agenda ... to get Christianity and spirituality and Judaism out of the public square.” He then added, “because if you look at what happened in Western Europe and Canada, if you can get religion out, then you can pass secular progressive programs, like legalization of narcotics, euthanasia, abortion at will, gay marriage, because the objection to those things is religious-based, usually.” O’Reilly’s comments on his television show, The...

ITHACA--A long running private Christmas light display was vandalized in the days before Christmas, with the perpetrators singling out the crosses.According to the Ithaca Journal, "vandals cut wires supplying electricity to a large merry Christmas sign and three large crosses that stand 12- to 15-feet tall" on the property of Ithaca resident Bill Lower.Jay Gartlein, who helps Lower put up the decorations, said he found some of the vandals' targets curious."They bypassed other decorations and went out of their way to wreck the crosses,” he said.The Lower property has 300,000 to 400,000 lights on it, most of which were not...

WASHINGTON, December 21, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Catholic League is reporting vandalism to nativity scenes across the United States. Figures from nativity scenes were stolen or vandalized in Tucson, AZ ; Millbrae, CA; Mission Viejo, CA; Moorpark, CA; San Francisco, CA; Naugatuck, CT; Waterbury, CT (Jesus was taken, but one of the arms was left behind); Fort Walton Beach, FL; Des Moines, IA; Sioux City, IA; Ammon, ID; Chicago, IL (32 figures of baby Jesus were nabbed-they were later dumped on the lawn of a Catholic church); Jackson County, IL (two incidents); Tinley Park, IL; Floyd County, IN; Fort Wayne,...

BRIARCLIFF MANOR, N.Y., December 20, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Village of Briarcliff Manor officials have decided to remove their entire holiday display, including a 9-foot-tall menorah, from a public park rather than allow a resident to add a crèche after Alliance Defense Fund attorneys and allied attorneys won a temporary restraining order Friday from a federal judge. The lawsuit and TRO motion were filed Dec. 11 after the Briarcliff Manor Village's Board of Trustees refused to permit the display. "The village's constitutional violations regarding religious expression in public make them look like the grinches who stole Christmas and Chanukah from the...

Santa Claus is back in town -- after surviving a religious controversy in which he was given the temporary heave-ho from the front lawn of the borough library. The eight-foot inflatable decoration was abruptly taken down Friday after a resident called Mayor John E. Murrin to remind him that Santa Claus also was known as St. Nicholas to Christians -- and therefore could be considered a religious figure. Now, under a compromise reached by borough officials, Santa will have company as all faiths have been invited to contribute to the display. The caller suggested that if the borough was going...

A Commack school bus driver was ordered to remove his seasonal hat after one complaint, but he later won approval.A Commack School District bus driver says he nearly lost his job because he refused to take off his Santa Claus cap while driving his route. With his long white beard and generous midriff, 65-year-old Kenneth Mott bears more than a passing resemblance to St. Nick. The Bayport resident says he has been wearing his furry red-and-white hat every December since he started working for the Baumann and Sons bus company, which transports students in the Commack School District, five years...

’Twas the Night before Christmas and in many a store,  The words “Merry Christmas” could be heard once more…Each year, it seems, the Register reports on Christmas losing ground in the increasingly secular public square. This Christmas is different.  Christians seem to have made progress at winning back some ground. After all, this is the Christmas you could see the Christ Child on screen in The Nativity Story.  You could hear “Merry Christmas” at Wal-Mart and other retailers.  And a Zogby poll found that an overwhelming majority of people are not offended by Christian Christmas greetings.  According to a Zogby...

T.O. judge orders Christmas tree out of lobby Updated Thu. Dec. 14 2006 5:31 PM ET toronto.ctv.ca A Toronto judge has ordered a Christmas tree out of a downtown provincial courthouse lobby, saying it's not an appropriate symbol to non-Christians. The move by Justice Marion Cohen has upset staff, some of whom call the decision stupid and insulting. Cohen says she understands the small tree has stood in the lobby at 311 Jarvis St. for years during the Christmas season, but in a letter to employees says non-Christians are "confronted" with the artificial decoration, which makes them feel "they are...

How did America, a nominally Christian nation, get to the point that a cheerful "Merry Christmas" is seen as intolerant and our gifts are placed under "holiday trees"? "The President and Mrs. Reagan extend to you their best wishes for a joyous Christmas and a peaceful New Year." In 1982, that was the message appearing on President Reagan's Christmas card to thousands of GOP faithful. In 1983, the "greeting" changed: "The President and Mrs. Reagan extend to you their warmest wishes for happiness at the holidays and throughout the new year." Thus did the Reagan White House stop sending Christmas...

Catholic League president Bill Donohue discusses the way Christmas is being celebrated on college campuses this year: “At Missouri State University, the Office of Multicultural Student Services does not list Christmas as part of its December celebrations: but it does list Kwanzaa, which unfortunately they think is spelled Kwanza. They celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month from mid-September to mid-October; October is Gay and Lesbian Month; and Native American Heritage Month captures November. But no Christmas—just “Kwanza.” “At SUNY Buffalo, they celebrate a Holiday Carnival which includes ‘a Hanukkah table, Kwanzaa, Boxing Day [this is a Canadian holiday], St. Nick’s Day and...

At Brandeis Elementary School in Louisville, Kentucky a teacher asked her students to make a Christmas tree out of paper; it was put on her bulletin board. But when a Jewish teacher said she was offended, she complained to the principal, Shervita West-Jordan, and got her wish. According to a news report, “She, and the teacher who complained, were bothered by the fact that the tree was made up of hands which represented all the students in the class.”  Both the teacher and the principal were angry over the words, “Santa’s Helpers,” that were placed over the tree. “Of course,...

A "silent night" as carolers told to stop singing at skating show RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) -- A high school choir was asked to stop singing Christmas carols during an ice skating show featuring Olympic medalist Sasha Cohen out of concern the skater would be offended because she's Jewish. A city staff member, accompanied by a police officer, approached the Rubidoux High School Madrigals at the Riverside Outdoor Ice Skating Rink just as they launched into "God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman" and requested that the troupe stop singing, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reported Thursday. Cohen, the 2006 Olympic silver medalist and 2006...

FROM THE land that produced "A Christmas Carol" and Handel's "Messiah," more evidence that Christianity is fading in Western Europe: Nearly 99 percent of Christmas cards sold in Great Britain contain no religious message or imagery. [...] A review of some 5,500 Christmas cards turns up fewer than 70 that make any reference to the birth of Jesus. "Hundreds . . . avoided any image linked to Christmas at all" -- even those with no spiritual significance, such as Christmas trees or Santa Claus. [...] Meanwhile, the employment law firm Peninsula says that 75 percent of British companies have banned...

The combat called ChristmasLast year, in John Gibson's book, ''The War on Christmas,'' he discussed a growing cross-country counter culture (represented in every stratum of our society) that is on a mission to bring down the Christian-version of Christmas. Notable evidence included the following: In Rhode Island, local officials barred Christians from joining others in decorating the City Hall's lawn. Arizona school officials declared it unconstitutional for a student to cite any references to the Christian history of Christmas in a class project. A New Jersey school banned traditional Christmas carols, even instrumental renditions. In Illinois, state government workers were...

Catholic League president Bill Donohue released the following statement today on the Christmas wars: “The secular crusaders who want to neuter Christmas say ad nauseam that the reason why we have to give more attention to holidays other than Christmas is due to the increasingly diverse composition of our nation and the world. But it is a hoax: the evidence is just the opposite. “According to Boston University professor Stephen Prothero, America now has more Christians than any other nation in history (Christian Science Monitor, 12-23-03). ‘In terms of religious background,’ writes Hoover Institution scholar Dinesh D’Souza, ‘America is no...

LONDON, Dec. 9 (UPI) -- A survey by a British newspaper finds that only about 1 percent of the Christmas cards sold in the country have a religious message. Nativity scenes, shepherds in the fields and the three kings following the star have given way to dancing meerkats or scenes of winter weather, The Daily Mail reported. If the shepherds or kings do appear, it is usually on a joke card, like one suggesting the shepherds had been smoking drugs. Just over half the cards wish recipients "Merry Christmas." Others say "Season's Greetings" with no message at all. "Of course...

My rubbish bin is full of Christmas cards. ...The discarded items have one thing in common: they are not Christmas cards at all, by which I mean, as well as having no Christian images, Nativity scenes etc, they don't even mention the "C" word. I'm afraid that "happy holidays" simply will not do. Before you ask, I haven't become a weirdo fundamentalist. This is not a matter of religiosity (I flicker somewhere between an agnostic and a mild believer). My protest is about resisting those who seem hell bent on turning Christianity into a crime. In the United Kingdom, this...

A Christmas-themed event to raise money at a public elementary school in Warwick, N.Y., has been altered to accommodate a parent's complaints that the program would illegally spotlight a "religious" figure - Santa Claus. "Breakfast With Santa" has since been changed to "Winter Wonderland Breakfast," and -- in an effort to be inclusive of all beliefs -- the bearded one will now be joined at the Dec. 9 event by Frosty the Snowman. Organizers made the changes after one parent charged that she and others in the community were offended that the Parent Teacher Association at the Sanfordville Elementary School...

An unusual Nativity scene is drawing some curious looks from passers by on the UT campus. The scene features a gay couple, Gary and Joseph, instead of Mary and Joseph, a terrorist as an angel and Lenin, Stalin and Marx as the three wise men. The scene is built by the Young Conservatives of Texas, who say what they're calling an "ACLU nativity scene" includes positions taken by the American Civil Liberties Union. "The idea is to bring attention to the ACLU and also to bring attention to the issue of taking down nativity scenes during the christmas season or...

CBS Discourages Religion in Christmas A segment of "The CBS Early Show" today, hosted by Rene' Syler, included a list of "do's and don'ts" for holiday gift giving. She and her guest said it was "a bad idea" to send Christmas cards with religious themes, or with religious messages. I thought Christ was born on this day and is the basis for the holiday celebration of Christmas. Apparantly they have lost touch with reality. Please send a feedback comment email to the show if you feel compelled to do so. Here is the link: http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/feedback/fb_news_form.shtml

Gap, which owns Old Navy, Banana Republic, Forth & Towne and Piperlime, has become the latest politically correct retailer, intentionally censoring the use of "Christmas" in their in-store, online and printed advertising. Instead of referring to the season as Christmas, Gap instead uses the word "holiday." As hard as we tried, AFA could not find a single instance in which Gap-owned stores use the term "Christmas." Not a single time! When one Old Navy store manager was asked by AFA if the word Christmas was in his store, he answered, "We have a lot of Christmas gifts in our stores,...

The Christkindl, or Christmas Fairy, is welcome at a Christmas festival in Chicago. So is Santa Claus. But a film about the birth of Jesus has provoked city officials to lower the boom. Chicago officials deny actually ordering Christkindlmarket officials to cancel an exhibit of “The Nativity Story.” They just sort of asked them to dump it, kind of the way Da Bears ask an opposing runner to gently drop to the turf. Dose Bears would be embarrassed, however, by the sheer cowardice and political correctness on display this week in Chicago’s Daley Plaza. Here’s what happened. Christkindlmarket, based on...

Best Buy has announced they will be using "Happy Holidays" this coming Christmas shopping season, and they will not be using "Merry Christmas." Dawn Bryant, a spokeswoman at Best Buy Co. Inc., says their advertising will not be using the term "Merry Christmas." "We are going to continue to use the term holiday because there are several holidays throughout that time period, and we certainly need to be respectful of all of them," Bryant said. Click here for reference article. While many other retailers have decided to return to the traditional "Merry Christmas", Best Buy will not be among them....